The Virginia Department of Transportation stands ready for the winter season ahead, when snow and ice may impact travel on 10,400 lane-miles of roadway in Central Virginia.

This winter, VDOT’s Culpeper District has a $14.2 million snow budget, which is part of the agency’s overall $1.5 billion maintenance budget.

Locally, 265 state employees will perform snow and ice removal. Additional contract crews are available for support based on forecast weather conditions. The district’s fleet includes more than 950 trucks and other equipment to cover the counties of Albemarle, Culpeper, Fauquier, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Madison, Orange and Rappahannock.

Culpeper District is fully stocked on salt at 40,000 tons. Supplies of sand, treated abrasives, liquid calcium chloride and salt brine are also ready and will be replenished as they are used.

Road-clearing prioritiesVDOT’s goal is to have all state-maintained roads passable within 48 hours after a winter storm ends. Crews first begin clearing interstates and primary highways (route numbers 1 to 599), as well as high-volume secondary roads that connect public facilities such as hospitals, schools and military posts.

Once those roads are in good condition, crews move to the lower-volume secondary roads and finally into neighborhoods to clear subdivision streets. During multi-day storms, plows will often make one pass along secondary roads and continue on to open other roads before returning to plow the full width of the road.